The Charge

Opening Statement

After four years of double crosses, global jet-setting, martial arts
fighting, crazy gadgets, ancient relics, explosive gun battles, and bucketloads
of weepy angst, CIA agent Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner, Elektra) bids farewell to viewers in this
fifth and final season of Alias.

Facts of the Case

The season begins with double the surprise plot twists, as Sydney learns a
shocking fact about her fellow agent turned boyfriend Michael Vaughn (Michael
Vartan, One Hour Photo), and then
reveals she's pregnant with his baby.

These two revelations set the stage for Sydney and her fellow agents to take
on a newly-discovered evil society called Prophet Five. While she does the
maternity thing, Sydney acts as a mentor for inexperienced new agent Rachel
Gibson (Rachel Nichols, The Inside). Other new faces in her life are
tough guy agent Tom Grace (Balthazar Getty, Lost Highway), and Renée "The
Raven" Rienne (Elodie Bouchez, Sorry,
Haters), an assassin who becomes a reluctant ally to the CIA. Familiar faces
making a return are Sydney's father and ruthless CIA director Jack (Victor
Garber, Titanic), her stoic field
partner Dixon (Carl Lumbly, The Ditchdigger's Daughters), and
in-need-of-Ritalin tech expert Marshall Flinkman (Kevin Weisman, Clerks II).

Also back for more espionage fun is sociopathic super criminal Arvin Sloane
(Ron Rifkin, Pulse). Still claiming that
he's seeking redemption for all of his past crimes, including the murders of
several of our heroes' loved ones, Sloane returns to hopes of finding some way
to revive his daughter and Sydney's stepsister Nadia (Mia Maestro, Poseidon). But can he do that without
rekindling his interest in the work of ancient seer Rambaldi, whose prophecies
could lead to modern-day glory and/or mass destruction?

The Evidence

This concluding season of Alias might be only 18 episodes instead of
the others' 22 episodes each, but that doesn't mean it's short on plot. This
season is like one big, insane 18-hour spy novel, with the events of one episode
leading right into the next, and a ton of characters and subplots to track. In
this way, it's preferable to watch the show on DVD, where episodes can be
devoured several at a time. This allows viewers to better keep track of
everything happening.

The season is roughly divided into two halves, pregnancy and post-pregnancy.
In real life, Jennifer Garner was pregnant during filming, so the writers and
producers had to dream up ways to get the show made with their star available
only some of the time. The solution? New stories about new characters, which
make up several episodes in the first half of this season. The Alias
faithful might be frustrated with so much of this season being devoted to
previously-unseen agents, but if you're willing to go along with it, there's a
lot to enjoy here.

The number one fresh face this year is Rachel, a character clearly created
to be a younger, more naïve Sydney. When we first met Sydney way back in
the pilot episode, she was already skilled at undercover spying and
butt-kicking. We never got to see her go through the process of learning to be a
spy. When we meet Rachel, however, she's in a situation much like Sydney was
when she first started out in the spy biz. We see Rachel's first undercover
mission, the first time she sees the death of a fellow agent, her worries about
keeping confidential secrets from her family, and even her first hand-to-hand
fight with a major baddie. Throughout all this, Sydney acts as Rachel's
"Obi-wan," monitoring Rachel from a distance and encouraging her
through those tiny CIA earpieces no one can see. Yes, Rachel's hesitant and
frightened at first, but eventually she gains a lot of self confidence and
becomes quite the effective agent.

Rachel's not the only newbie running around this year. Renée fills the
role of the kung fu fightin' girl power type, and she even gets to throw knives
at bad guys, which is always cool to see. But because she's not an agent, but
instead just a tough girl who sometimes hangs out with the agents, this makes
stories about her somewhat limited. Also, she's stationed in France, across the
ocean from our heroes' home base. Seems like the agents end up with reasons to
go to France more often than usual this season, just so they can conveniently
meet up with Renée. It's kind of like those old episodes of Super
Friends, in which every adventure had to have some sort of oceanic element
to it, just so Aquaman could have something to do. I think Renée would have
been better served in a series of her own, perhaps a contemporary take on To
Catch a Thief, where her character could have been fully explored. Instead,
we're left with someone who never quite reaches her potential.

And there are even more new characters. Balthazar Getty is given little to
do as Tom; it seems he's only here to add a little extra hunky man-meat for when
the story calls for it. The subplot about his investigation into his wife's
death ends up being anticlimactic. It really should have been its own episode,
instead of a stretched-out B-story running through several episodes. For
villains, we start out with Gordon Dean (Tyrees Allen, Robocop), who gets a nice run of
episodes as the "big bad," but he's eventually upstaged by Amy Acker
(Angel) as the cold-hearted and opportunistic Kelly Peyton. She becomes
more and more of a problem for the CIA as she rapidly rises through the ranks of
international criminal-dom. Kelly might not have as much depth as some of the
other Alias villains, but it's always fun to see Acker play a "bad
girl" type.

So for a while, this show turns into the adventures of Rachel, Tom, and
Renée as they battle against the evil machinations of Gordon and Kelly. And
it's pretty engrossing stuff. But then, when one of the regular cast members
makes an appearance, suddenly I think, "Oh, that's right, this is
Alias I'm watching." Fortunately, during the second, post-pregnancy
half of the season, the show turns back into semi-classic Alias, and
we're back in the world of Sydney, Jack, Dixon, Marshall, and Sloane.

I'd heard a lot of rumors that Jennifer Garner sleepwalked through this
season, thanks to both the pregnancy and to her getting more and more movie
offers, but I personally don't see it. Sure, she missed out on a lot of airtime
while becoming a mom, but aside from that, she really shines when she's on
screen. As Sydney, she shows a lot of emotional intensity while fretting over
Vaughn or worrying about the fate of her baby. And as usual, she still gets to
adopt some crazy aliases while undercover. At one point, believe it or not, she
even plays two characters at once. This, plus the fact that her name gets added
to the credits as an executive producer this year, tells me Garner never lost
her passion for the show, and she sticks with it right to the end.

The rest of the show's regulars continue to play their roles with skill,
even if they are sometimes overcrowded by all the newbies. Victor Garber gets a
few moments of extreme bad-assness that has made his character so popular. Carl
Lumbly remains strong and stoic; Weisman continues to fill the vital comic
relief position with ease. And if there weren't enough characters already
running around, the second half of this season suddenly becomes a massive
continuity-a-thon, with a "who's who" of former Alias
supporting characters returning, including a few of the dead ones. This is not
the season to start with if you're new to the show. Instead, it rewards longtime
viewers with dozens of nods to previous episodes, tying up all sorts of loose
ends.

Then, it all comes to a head in the big finale. For folks who have followed
all the ups and downs of this series since day one, there's a lot of payoff
here. That's all well and good, and yet it also concludes kind of how you expect
it would. For a show renowned for its wild plot twists, I hoped for one last big
shocker. Instead, the ending is satisfying, but still a little predictable.

The picture quality here is excellent. For example, check out the scene in
the season premiere in which Sydney is chased through a cornfield by a bunch of
thugs. It's almost a 3-D effect, with the bright green leaves standing out in
contrast with Sydney's white and pink outfit. The sound is similarly good,
booming out of all the speakers during the big, explosive moments.

A few episodes get commentary tracks which, this time around, tend to be a
little more jokey than informative. The "100th episode" featurette
walks us through the making of this single episode, including the construction
of one of the largest sets used on the show, as well as a big "100th"
party held by the cast and crew afterward. The "On Set" featurette has
a camera crew follow Rachel Nichols around during the filming of another episode
as she shares her thoughts about joining the cast and about acting for a
big-budget TV show in general. The featurette about Rambaldi has the show's
creators talking about what their big McGuffin has meant to the show, and there
are even some faux-documentary bits about the man himself. Finally, in the
"Music of Alias," the creators praise the music department and
discuss how important the score is to the final product. Rounding out the extras
are few deleted scenes, some trailers, and another ridiculous blooper reel.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

From the beginning, one of the biggest draws of this series has been the
action. In every episode, viewers knew they could count on at least one big
fight scene or stunt sequence, not to mention stuff like gunfights, car chases
and explosions. But the fifth season has a lot less action. The thrills are more
cerebral this time, with the emphasis on being stealthy or outwitting enemies
instead of out-punching them. While the big "summer movie" action
scenes used to be every week, this time they're only once in a while. When the
show makes with the excitement, it's great to see; just know that there's not as
much of it this time around.

Closing Statement

I went into Alias: The Complete Fifth Season expecting to see the
series implode, with burned-out actors and writers just going through the
motions. "Time for this show to turn into a pale shadow of what it once
was," I thought. So imagine how surprised I was to find some compelling
storytelling here. The tone and style might be different from the Alias
we're all used to, but when it was all over, it ended up a satisfying ride.

The Verdict

According to the writings of Rambaldi, "Lo, in the fifth year,
Alias shalt reach its end. And behold, it shalt be not guilty."